Milling Machines: Old Bridgeport or new Jet?

Looks like you are from NY. There are a ton of Bridgeports for sale daily in the NE. You can come across a very good condition one with tooling for decent $$$. I recently seen one that was used by an optics company for one job, there was no wear on the ways as they never moved any part of the machine. One set up, one job for it's entire life. The business was firm on $1000,00 or it was going to the scrap yard. Someone else picked up before I could get there.

So, it depends on the deal and time. If you have the time, I would look for a great condition BP. A new Jet will always be available.
 
They both work the same
New you have new bed ways [
Old BP has worn bed way

Dave
EmilioG said:
I'm shopping for a milling machine. Do you think an old BP is better than a new Jet?
What do you recommend? Thanks
Click to expand...
 
OK. lets summarize. The BP is a much better machine NEW.

So your question becomes how good is THIS machine?

A fella named Don Ficken wrote up this advice years ago:
http://www.mermac.com/freemill2.html

Karl
 
As a note: The Asian machines do not have their armatures dipped in varnish. American BP's do. You can never really trust the motors on Asian machinery,therefore. I had the 3 HP motor of our 16" 1986 Grizzly arc across the bearings and burn out. The museum electricians replaced its motor with an American made one. They said the Asian motor was junk.

One expert has suggested taking your new Asian motor apart and taking it to an electric motor repair shop,and getting it dipped. This will make it a LOT more reliable about arcing out on you.
 
My local motor shop which does all types of AC and DC motors says the motors out of the Orient have improved greatly since the 1990s. Not Baldor quality, but way better than they use to be.

A friend of mine bought a brand new Sharp mill a few years back, considered better and priced higher than a Jet Mehanite casting Taiwan machine. He took it apart to CNC it, found the dogbone which is the heart of the knee, table arrangement to be less beefy than his 30 year old old BP. Based on that I think all things being equal in terms of condition that the BP is the better machine. That said when I was ready to buy something more rigid than a Clausing 8520 I went with the jet pulley head JTM-1 and got a VFD and have been happy for nine years. Back then it cost me $4000 plus the DRO and VFD, which was the same money I would have paid for a very well worn BP.

If I could have found a gently used BP for 4K I would have gone that route, but that was not to be found in my area and I didn't wont to wait years for one to come along.

michael
 
Up here in the north east, we have the tremendous advantage of a large used machine pool to choose from. Get on Craig's list and search your area and surrounding areas for milling machines. I don't see why you couldn't find an excellent used machine with a dro for under $3000. I bought mine for $1700, it has brand new rebuilt vs head on it and a mitutoyo dro. It was greasy, and the table had a few drill marks in it, but overall it's a great solid machine. Shiny new is nice to look at, but in the end it's gonna get dirty too, if you plan on using it.
 
Craigslist has bridge ports starting at around 800 on Long Island. There's always a few for sale I'd say look for a used one rather then new. I would think you could have a decent one delivered for about 2000. I don't know what a new jet goes for but I think a lot more then that.
 
I recommend searching for a good used machine that you can pick up for less than 1/2 the price of the new Jet. Use the money to power up the mill (RPC for 3 phase?) and buy tooling.
A Index (Wells Index) mill would be top on my list for bridgeport style mills. Index is still in business, parts are available and they will bore out your spindle to something more modern if your machine has an older (now) oddball taper.
It took several years but with that said I got my horizontal/vertical VN22l for right around $1,000 delivered and well tooled; and I'm in the machine tool desert of Georgia :)).

Now if you are talking equal money between used and new, I'd go with the Jet.
 
I went through the same thought process when I was thinking about getting a bigger mill. Used BP vs. ???. I end up going with the BP since parts are readily available and good use BP's are easy to find and pretty cheap. I decided to do a complete rebuild on the machine after I got it and started cleaning it up.

heres the thread http://www.Hobby-Machinist.com/showthread.php?t=16025

This was a complete rebuild. Everything spindle bearings, R8-tapper regrind, ways, everything that was slightly wore was fixed or replaced. Total cost was about 7500 including the mill. Thats still cheaper then an import BP 2J clone. It is a lot of work to do a rebuild. There is something to be said about cleaning the cosmoline off and making chips.
 
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